A COURAGEOUS woman chased the robber who poked a knife to her back, threatened to stab her and snatched her bag in a "tug of war".

Pauline Walker, 56, was walking home around Bolckow Street, Guisborough, when a stranger came from behind and said: “Give me your bag or I’ll stab you.”

She felt something sharp press into her back, Teesside Crown Court was told.

A “tug of war” for the handbag ensued between Ms Walker and her assailant, 34-year-old Joanne Whiteley.

The bag was wrenched from its owner’s grasp in a cut near a local church, said prosecutor Richard Wilson.

Whiteley ran off but Ms Walker pursued her on to Oak Road, where other people moved from their gardens to help.

Whiteley handed over the bag to one of the witnesses, threw a pocket knife to the ground and made off empty-handed.

When interviewed she said she was desperate for money to repair her son’s Xbox console and had confiscated the fold-up knife from him that morning.

Whiteley, of Coronation Road, Loftus, admitted the robbery which took place on the afternoon of April 18.

Paul Abrahams, defending, said Whiteley made full admissions, entered an early guilty plea and wrote an apology to Ms Walker.

He said she felt genuine remorse, had a limited record and a prison sentence would have an impact on her family.

He talked of her sad history where she took cannabis for a leg problem, leading to more serious drugs and a heroin addiction. Meanwhile she tried her best to run a household on benefits while unable to work and looked after her two children, now teenagers.

Mr Abrahams suggested a suspended sentence with supervision and drug rehabilitation would help Whiteley.

The judge, Recorder Andrew Haslam, said the robbery was serious enough for sentences from two and seven years.

He told Whiteley: “Pauline Walker must have been petrified by what you did and said that afternoon. She must have felt that blade in her back, heard your threat and thought you were being serious. You then wrestled her handbag from her.

“Whilst you have been under the influence of heroin and other substances no doubt, you have not built up a typical record of a heroin addict. The shortest sentence I can reasonably impose is one of two years’ imprisonment.”